Application servers are entities in system and network environments in which various applications or services can execute or operate. In particular, application servers are dedicated to the efficient execution of processes, procedures, routines, scripts, and software code for supporting the functionalities of applications and services that can be delivered to users over the Internet and other networks. Software developers can access application servers via various application programming interfaces (APIs).
The Java Platform, Enterprise Edition, Java EE, or J2EE are widely used platforms for server programming in the Java programming language. A J2EE container is a runtime entity that provides services to specialized Java components. Services provided by a container typically include life cycle management, security, deployment, and component-specific services. Containers are used in a wide variety of Java components, such as Enterprise Javabeans (EJB), Web pages, Java Server Pages (JSP), servlets, applets, and application clients.
During operation of a Java EE application server, various services or applications associated with the services may need to be configured by a system administrator or other entity.
In some types of served applications, there may be a need for the use of tokens to manage user authentication, data access, or other purposes. Various applications may call for the use of different types of token services or mechanisms to provide that secure access. Among other things, those different token types and associated services may be supported by different token providers. In known application server platforms, an administrator or other user may be required to manually select and configure token types, including to specify the intended token provider and other details. It may be desirable to provide systems and methods for a security token management service hosted in an application server, in which the acquisition, use, and management of security tokens can be aggregated in a unitary security token service hosted in the application server or other location, while providing the ability to deploy any arbitrary selected token type or provider without a need for complete manual configuration.